Stenhouse should have the edge considering his ability to win races and championships in the Nationwide Series. Patrick, who has not won a Nationwide race but finished 10th in the 2012 standings, does have 10 Cup races of experience while Stenhouse has only five.

“It will be good to have two of us going for it,” Stenhouse said. “It has been awhile since we had that. It will be fun going against Danica.

“I can’t help her too much in the Cup car, though I think she has more races than I’ve got. We both lean on the same people on the Cup side as far as Tony (Stewart) and some other guys. It will be fun.”

Patrick and Stenhouse are good friends off the track and Patrick wouldn’t make any predictions on whether she could challenge him for the rookie title.

“You know you just race hard,” Patrick said. “I think those are the things that just happen. If it does, it does. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But I think that if I shoot for great results each time and keep bettering myself all the time, that is the best goal that I can have as opposed to just shooting for Rookie of the Year.”

Stenhouse will race hard as well, although he will have more of a winning mindset each week than Patrick, whose stock-car experience is limited.

“We have to go out and try to win every week,” Stenhouse said. “I think that is how you achieve your best results. You go out there and shoot for the best. That is what we are going to do and see how we start the season off and see where we end up.

“We have to be consistent. I think that is the thing that I have learned over the past three years racing in the Nationwide Series. You have to be consistent. You can’t make big mistakes. You have to take what the car and track will give you at that time and go on.”

Rookies rarely come into the sport and make a big splash. In 2010, Brad Keselowski finished 25th in the standings and won the Cup title two years later. Joey Logano was 20th in the standings as rookie in 2009.

Only once in the last seven years has a rookie finished better than 20th in the standings — Denny Hamlin finished third with three wins as a rookie in 2006. He was the last rookie to win during his first season.

Patrick admits that she doesn’t even know how the rookie title is decided.

“It’s going to be something I’m sure that will come into thought at the end of the year. … I don’t even know what I have to do necessarily,” she said. “(I’ll) just do the best I can and hope that is enough.”

The rookie points system is complicated:

— Using a 10-to-1 points system, the highest finishing rookie in each race earns 10 points, the second-highest gets nine points and so on.

— Only a rookie’s best 17 races in that point system are used in tallying rookie points. A rookie must attempt to qualify in eight of the first 20 races.

— Rookies get a bonus point for each qualifying attempt (36 maximum) plus, on a 10-to-1 system, bonus points for every top-10 finish, with a win worth 10 points, a second worth nine points, etc.

— During the final race weekend, a panel rates a rookie and rewards favorable conduct in the following categories: conduct with NASCAR officials in the garage and pits; conduct and awareness on the track; personal appearance; and relationship with the media. The panel rates each driver, with 10 being the highest. The total points will be averaged from each panel member’s ballot.